


Birds of a Feather

by midorimortem



Category: One Piece
Genre: Age Difference, F/M, Feelings Realization, Friendship, Helping Each Other, Mentions of a certain Marimo, On Hiatus, Overprotective Mihawk is best Mihawk, Slow Build, warm and fuzzy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-08-01
Packaged: 2019-04-06 09:41:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14054148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midorimortem/pseuds/midorimortem
Summary: On how the Hawk Eyed Swordsman and the Ghost Princess learned to live together and brought a land forgotten by time back to life.The author is having a really bad time in her life, but she's not given up.Will eventually finish the story.





	1. Haven

**Author's Note:**

> Ah, this ship... this is what happens when the two characters I immediatelly fell in love as soon as they appeared move into the same old creepy castle for TWO FREAKING YEARS and Oda gives us nothing about their lives/background/time together for 500 chapters. Please send help. I don't know how long this will be, but don't expect too many chapters anyway.

Dracule Mihawk was not a compassionate man, she knew that pretty well after two years of living along with him -or invading his property, as he’d usually point out with a popped vein on his forehead-, yet there he was, bringing a bottle of bright-red wine along and sitting down on the ground next to his pink haired guest.

“What brings you back, Ghost Girl?” He said with an unimpressed tone as he offered an empty glass to her and poured some wine onto it. Perona looked back at him, estranged. The Hawkeye was not kind, and he definitely did not mind about her personal business to be asking question now, not after 23 months of ignoring each other. Given the fact that Zoro had left just some weeks ago, it was more than likely that the warlord was feeling slightly lonely. She reached the only logical conclusion for Mihawk’s odd behavior: he was drunk.

“Thriller Bark is done for.” She admitted, sipping from the glass as she squished her bear-shaped plush against her chest. Maybe Mihawk as a bit of a jerk to her at times, but she needed someone to talk and he was willing to listen, even if inebriated. “The mist disappeared and none of the zombies survived after Absalom, Dr. Hogback and Master Moriah left. The ship has begun to sink and the artificial island is going down with it, there’s no way I can stay there and make a living there without eventually drowning.”

“Did you find what you were looking for?” He asked, staring at the oddly-shaped mound of dirt in front of the Ghost Girl.  

“Yeah… hey wait, how do you know I went there looking for something?” She frowned, staring at him in anger. Even if he had been drinking heavily, Perona knew he had a strong hold of his alcohol, thus he must have known about her intentions from the very beginning. Getting Zoro to Sabaody Archipelago was just an excuse to take the little coffin boat back to her old home and search for the remains of a dear old friend…

“I somewhat overheard your conversation with Roronoa the night before you left. As you were reading yourself for the trip, he came and spoke to me one last time and mentioned you planned to go back to Thriller Bark. Was your pet bear there?” Strangely enough, he was very understanding and somewhat kind when he was like this. Perona hugged her knees, trying not to tear the fabric of her long, black dress as she moved around.

“Somewhat.” She admitted, pointing at the mound of dirt. “Or whatever was left of Kumashi, anyway. He was mostly complete by the time I found him, strangely, but his insides… ugh.”

“You could have fixed him. You’re pretty good at sewing if I recall.” Mihawk pointed out and poured more wine into his glass.

“The thing is that Dr. Hogback usually made my zombies out of fabric and human body parts, little Kumashi here was no exception. His outsides were ok, but… ugh, the smell!” She complained and pinched her nose. “I could have fixed him with some fresh ingredients, but he’d have no soul anymore, not ever since Master Moriah…” Perona felt silent and looked down at her shoes, toying around with the pointy heel. It was still a harsh topic for her to talk about, and Mihawk understood quite well he should not poke into an open wound.

“You’ve heard the rumors, don’t you? Gecko Moriah may still...” 

“They’re nothing more than gossip. I won’t believe a thing until I see it with my own eyes.” She frowned and sighed, bothered. “I decided it was better to give Kumashi a proper burial and let him rest, there’s nothing more I can do for him. I still miss having servants, though. The mosshead worked just fine from time to time when he owed me something, but Kumashi was the best… as long as he didn’t open his mouth,  _ horo horo horo.” _

“If you call that a proper burial…”

“You’re such a jerk, Hawk Eyes.”

“I know.” He drank and smiled. “Yet you decided to come back.”

“I have nowhere else to go.” She shrugged and looked at the horribly constructed cross where Kumashi’s remains rested. “And I thought you still needed help tilling the land around here. I believe it’s too much work for one old man alone in this old, abandoned castle, don’t you think?”

“How considerate of you.” Mihawk frowned at the ‘old man’ part, but decided to let it go for the moment. “Yet I’m afraid Roronoa has been doing most of the hard work and now it’ll have to fall back into my hands once again, as I doubt you’d like to dirty your hands, Princess.”

“Don’t call me that, and I won’t call you old man again.” She said as she avoided looking at him. Her voice was tired, and even if Mihawk insisted she’d not want to dirty her own hands, he could not ignore she’d been the one to -miserably- bury her pet bear all on her own. “I got a trick under my sleeve that may help you, so you won’t break your back while plowing the land.”

“Let’s talk about it over dinner.” He stood up and handed her the bottle of wine and his glass, picking up the shovel and removing the half-assed cross atop of Kumashi’s grave.

“H-hey! What do you think you’re doing, Hawk Eyes?!”

“What do you think  _ I’m  _ doing, Ghost Girl?” He smiled as he dug the grave open. “I’m giving your friend a proper burial. Now, dry those tears and get back in the castle. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Perona let out a small ‘hmp’ as she stood up, bothered. She dusted her dress off and opened her red umbrella to avoid the filtering sunlight that fell atop of them, heading back through the road she’d walked before.

“Mihawk… thanks.”

He didn’t answer back, and he couldn’t help but smile, as he enjoyed those very rare occasions his name rolled on her lips instead of the usual epithet. Obviously he wouldn’t tell Perona that Zoro asked him to take care of her, since she would probably feel the worst out of the three of them for being left alone once more. He wouldn’t tell her he’d agreed to take her into his house, not as a guest, but as part of his own -previously non-existent- family, and he’d definitely not tell her that he and Zoro promised to fight back at Moriah if he ever came back for their precious Ghost Girl.


	2. Hollow

If Mihawk said he wasn’t worried, he was probably lying. He observed from the top of the tower back at the castle as Perona stood alone on the courtyard, and the humandrills  rushed towards her in swift and violent motion. He held his breath as his ghastly guest closed her colorful umbrella and pointed the tip at them, defiantly. 

“Don’t come near me as I do this,” she had said earlier that evening, “those monkeys are afraid of you just as much as they were of the mosshead, so they won’t come near me if you're around. But, believe me, I’ve walked around the courtyard without problem these past two years. I have a trick under my sleeve.”

“Somewhat, I cannot believe you. Just yesterday you cried because there was a cockroach on the bathroom and you wanted me to use Yoru to kill it.” Mihawk talked back and frowned. 

“It’ll make your life much more easy once you see my trick.” She ignored his comment. In the end, the cockroach ended up winning and Perona didn’t know if the bug was still roaming around the bathroom on the second floor. “You think I did all the chores on the outside by myself? I used those stupid monkeys, of course!” 

Mihawk found it hard to believe Perona had managed to find a way to tame those beasts, after they had adapted and learned from the violent soldiers from the Shikkerau Kingdom and later on from Zoro and himself, but she had a point... out of all the three inhabitants of Kuraigana Island, Perona was by far the laziest one. She’d have never collected apples from the trees or picked up water from the nearby stream even if Mihawk and Zoro had begged her for it, yet there was always food and water by the table, and there was always wood on the fireplace, which she definitely didn’t do the lumbering. Being so busy with Zoro’s training, neither of them had time to do that job. They never questioned how Perona managed it all on her own.

Mihawk kept observing and readied himself to jump on her aid, taking Yoru’s hilt on his hand just in case things got sour in a few seconds. He gulped as he noticed the Emperor mandrill, the one he usually sought for practice, neared Perona’s location and leaded the entire pack. If he leaped over to save her, it’d take him around a minute to get to the courtyard… by then they would have already butchered the Ghost Girl. Still, Perona stood defiantly and Mihawk could see her counting her enemies with her fingers, completely open and defenseless.

“Than makes 23 mandrills and one Monkey Emperor!” She screamed so loud that even the Hawkeye up in his tower could hear her. She pointed at the nearest beast with the umbrella and chanted,  “ _ Negative Hollow _ !”

One of her trademark smiling ghosts attacked the monster, which fell on the ground immediately. From the first ghost’s body, another one popped out and so forth until there were 23 mini hollows and one large, menacing white ghost ready to fight the Emperor. For all the times Perona had tried to pull that joke on him, Mihawk suspected it would not work on it, since it had quite a lot of strength, but the monster fell on its knees right in front of the pink haired woman, who opened the umbrella again and shielded herself from the sunlight.

“See? I told you I could manage them!” Her voice spoke right behind his back and Mihawk almost felt his heart skip a beat. Almost.

“So you weren’t down there to begin with.” He noticed the illusory Perona had vanished, leaving a very confused and disturbed pack of humandrills screaming on the courtyard. The real woman was standing at the door frame with a cynical smile on her face.

“Of course not! I’m not stupid enough to get myself killed, unlike a certain green haired idiot and his bloodthirsty mentor.” She walked towards him and offered to pour them some tea as they spoke. “When I discovered I could stop them, I began giving instructions to them, simple ones. Go pick some apples, chop up some wood, etcetera, etcetera. I had to show them how to do it, but they managed. I could never teach anything to the big one, though.”

Mihawk crossed his legs and stared at her, making Perona slightly uncomfortable. Even if he had no ill intentions, his eyes were disturbing and no matter how many years passed, that piercing stare still made her nervous, as if he was trying to stab her with those amber-colored irises. She sipped from her cup and stared away from him, wondering if there was something on her face that would catch his attention for so long.

“I never understood how your powers worked.” He finally admitted, and Perona understood he was probably trying to analyze whatever data he had on her.

“Well, you never asked.” She crossed her legs as well and leaned on the table, placing her cheeks atop of her hands. “My power empties things, be it my soul from my own body, the enemy’s life force or their happiness, it makes things hollow, as the name suggests. Initially I could only empty people’s hearts, but with a bit of practice I’ve also been able to empty their minds and their memories. After the monkeys forgot they’d been imitating the soldiers or recreating the war, I taught them how to serve me and some of them became docile.”

“That is indeed quite useful. Not to mention dangerous.” He said as if he was warning the girl not to ever try it again on him.

“It won't work on extremely depressive people or strong-willed ones like yourself, though.” She shrugged and smiled. “ I promise I won't ever try it on you if you help me tame the Emperor. I know you’ll miss your sparring partner, but we need him to do the heaviest work.”

Mihawk smiled and agreed, but then wondered about the explosive power of the hollows. Sometimes, Perona’s powers made no sense at all, like most of Paramecia fruit users’ didn’t either. His freeloading guest told him that they were like party balloons with gunpowder inside of them. Contrary to popular belief, Perona did not control void as an element. Things could still have air inside of them and be completely hollow, she explained.

“Now, I’ve got a question for you, Hawkeye.” Perona shifted her position on the tea table and pointed at him with one finger. “Why do you want to bring the island back to life? I mean, the castle is fine and you’ve kept it quite nicely, but the island’s abandoned. You and I and those stupid monkeys are the only ones living here. Why have an entire island for yourself? I know for a fact you’re kind of a loner, so it makes absolutely no sense.”

The swordsman sighed and stood up, walking towards the window he’d been eavesdropping the whole time. The humandrills were gone now, but after they regained their senses, they made a mess out of the entrance. 

“Eleven years ago I heard the strongest swordsman lived in the Muggy Kingdom and I wanted to see it for myself, so I searched for the island after the civil war was done. I do not believe the king died, though. It’s impossible that someone who claimed the title before me would be defeated so easily.” Mihawk admitted, but Perona suspected he was not telling her the entire truth. Yet, she decided to go along with that version of the story, since it was better than having nothing explained to her.

“Then you’re just doing this because of your ego. I thought you had some sort of humanitarian personal agenda behind it or something, but you’re just being selfish!” 

At times, he pissed her off so much. He had this ridiculous pride that was borderline pathologic, and a bloodthirst that made her wonder if he was even human, yet he always looked so calm and composed. Perona knew better, and she knew how similar Mihawk and Zoro had to be to become master and apprentice: both were stupid and both acted like five-year olds when issued a challenge.

“It’s not humanitarian, yet I do have another personal agenda, but…” Perona looked up from her teacup, slightly surprised that she had hit the bullseye. It was even weirder that Mihawk had admitted it himself, even if he seemed not to want to talk about it.  “Let’s leave that for another time. For now, tell me, what do you have in mind for our giant furry pest?”


	3. Birds of Prey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He's always so brave, kind and protective, almost like... a King?

Ch 4- Birds of Prey  
For all that Mihawk was diplomatic and patient, Perona was not. A group of marines under Admiral Issho’s orders walked into Kuraigana Island a certain evening, claiming to be searching for the Ghost Girl. She was under Moirah’s protection, they said, And now that he’s M.I.A., she’s got a bounty on her head and no alibi, they said. Moirah served as her backup, but now that he’s gone, Perona had become an easy target for those money-starved marines that would catch any small-fry pirate just to claim their bounty. She was about to tell them to go screw themselves as she opened the main door and they had already placed seastone shackles around her wrists, but her landlord intervened and ordered them to let her go. The young marines immediately released Perona, as Mihawk’s golden eyes glistened with fury. One of his hands was draped around his guest’s shoulders, embracing her and shielding her from harm, while the other grappled Yoru’s hilt dangerously.

“She’s under my protection now,” he said with a menacing tone. Perona rubbed her wrists as she glared daggers at them, and if looks could kill, they’d have died in a very tortuous fashion. “Even if Moirah is no longer around, she’s still under a Warlord’s jurisdiction. And no matter what Fujitora-san says, we still hold power in front of the Government for the time being.”

Perona was truthfully amazed that he’d not let her be taken away by them if he had insisted she was a freeloading pest more than once, but he refused to speak about his reasons other than using her powers for his own benefit. Whatever if was, if Mihawk had not answered in her behalf, she’d be on her way to Impel Down or a crueler fate in that very moment. At times, she couldn’t help but be infinitely grateful to him. Even if it was hard to call the Muggy Kingdom her home, it was the closest place she’d found to call her own. She had to admit it’d be nothing without her landlord there. Even if they were complete opposites, he made her life a lot less lonely and she believed it was the same for him.

She decided to let the issue go for the time, as she had learned through this couple of years that nothing ever came from trying to make the swordsman speak his reasons. If he wanted to shield her from the government, so be it, Perona would not ask for answers. As long as he didn’t grow tired of her antics, she was willing to let herself be protected by the swordsman without concerning herself with his motives. At the time, she noticed that perhaps the best thing to do to pay him back for saving her ass was to give him some hours on his own, enjoying some quiet time without her company. 

The Ghost Princess walked out of the castle with her umbrella at hand and decided to take a stroll on the nearby ruins they had scavenged past week. The swordsman had discovered a safe route towards the mountains and secured a passage towards another old chateau that seemed to be some sort of noblehouse summer cottage. It wasn’t as grandiose as Kuraigana’s castle, but it was certainly luxurious. The narrow, moldy walls were covered in portrayals of the rich and the noble, all of them dressed with carmine-colored drapes around their shoulders. The smell of the entire place revealed its longevity and the years that had gone by without anyone living there, but Perona could only imagine how lively it’d have been around a century ago, before the war started. The elegant and bright colored furniture had been forgotten by time and a soft but thick layer of dust had already settled atop of them. Even of that, it seemed like people were going to enter the empty ballroom at any time and the candles on the chandelier would lit up on their own at any moment.

Perona skipped across the hall as her ghastly puppets circled around her. For being such a creepy, abandoned place, she was having the time of her life. She had never had an interest in history or politics, but the island’s past had certainly piqued her interest. How could it be that an entire nation would be wrecked into nothing because of a war? Where did everyone go? Someone must have survived, right? After all, the victors are the ones who tell the story… then again, when Mihawk claimed the place as his own, it was completely abandoned. It was impossible! People do not vanish in the blink of an eye! 

Maybe there had been an invasion after the civil war was over and the survivors were defeated and taken away. Or perhaps the land was left so barren and dead after the battle was over that no crops would grow on it, no animals would be born anew… and the rivers had been soiled with so much innocent blood they could never be used for consumption again! Perona liked that theory very much, but the fact that they were able to live and harvest there for two entire years proved her hypothesis wrong. 

She was about to make her way back to the exit when she stopped dead on her tracks. Perhaps her mind had played her some sort of trick, but as she was walking out of the hall, a pair of golden, glowing eyes had caught her while moving through a barely open door. The Ghost Girl froze… had Mihawk followed her? Perona finished opening the door with shaky hands and found herself alone inside an empty room with large bookshelves that had their tomes torn away from their original places.

In front of her eyes were the remains of a large canvas that had been darkened by time. Its original colors must have been very bright and beautiful, but for now, the painting seemed to be burnt off around the edges and dirtied just enough to let a few details be seen through. One of those details were precisely the bright golden eyes, that even through the layers of darkened matter, were still piercing and powerful… just like the ones of her landlord. The portrayed person, to Perona’s surprise, could barely be discernible as a woman, but she could also notice how she also had what looked like Yoru’s hilt on a sash around her hip, much like Mihawk used to carry it on his back.

“I didn’t imagine I’d find you here. I thought you’d be locked in your room, sulking for being arrested.” Speak of the devil, the swordsman was standing right behind her, with his arms crossed against his chest. Perona furrowed and rested her weight against the umbrella.

“I am in my bedroom, but I decided to take a walk anyway.” She said mischievously and the hawkeye smiled at her. Her powers were handy for sure, but at times he forgot she could be very thoughtful about putting herself at risk. Not wanting to be exposed to any harm of intruding marines, she decided to guard herself inside one of her secret chambers back at the castle. “Now… did you have any idea about this?” She pointed at the picture and Mihawk shook his head.

“No. I found this same portrayal around three weeks ago, but -I believe I told you the other day- I’ve heard some rumors that the previous ruler of this land was considered to be the strongest swordsman in the world before the war started, and that’s what brought me here. I wanted to fight them and defeat them because I believed the king could not have been defeated so easily, but the land was barren by the time I arrived. As a matter of fact I had expected the king to be male, but apparently I was mistaken… and I didn’t expect her to be Yoru’s previous wielder.”

“You can’t tell for sure, I believe the hilt is shorter… and you can’t see the blade from here. Maybe it’s some sort of partner blade? I… I don’t know.”

“We have no way of telling… but this does bring more questions than answers.”

“Perhaps a family ancestor?” Perona wondered but Mihawk frowned even deeper. 

“Again, I have no certain way to prove it or link myself to her. We don’t even know any names. My family was humble and I was raised on the slums of a small town close to East Blue in the Grand Line, so there’s no way to link it back a century to find out. We’re pretty far away from there...” He said coldly and the pink haired girl decided it was better not to push him too far. But in given case her suspicions were true, that’d make him Kuraigana’s… “Why don’t we head back? I came to retrieve some books, I didn’t expect to find you here.”

“I’ll see you back at home.” She said, scratching the back of her neck with a gloved hand. She felt as if she had intruded into something she was not supposed to have seen. Once again, her landlord proved to be very kind and understanding, not only for not kicking her out of the house -and the island-, but also for forgiving her intrusions every now and then. Perona knew she could be quite high maintenance and overbearing from time to time, but the warlord had proven to be incredibly patient with her. Perhaps she had seen him under the wrong lights all this time, and now that he was baring himself in front of her, she couldn’t help but change her mind little by little. Showing some gratitude could not be so bad from time to time. “Hey, how about some rose tea? I picked some fresh leaves and petals this morning.”

Sometimes, those little details were the only way she managed to apologize.

“That would be lovely.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got a promotion at work and we changed to a new office past month. I also moved away, and as such, adult life has been taking away my time and my will to live. I have another work on the go, I hope to post it either tonight or tomorrow evening. I don't know when will I be able to update next. Wish me luck.


End file.
